As a mobile communication system for achieving high speed communication with high capacity, LTE (Long Term Evolution) and LTE Advanced which is a sophisticated version of the LTE are being standardized in 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), which is a project aiming to standardize.
In the 3GPP standards, in order to achieve an inter-cell interference coordination (ICIC), a Load Indication procedure is defined in which interference control information for controlling interference is transmitted and received between neighboring base stations.
In the Load Indication procedure, the base station transmits, on an X2 interface set with a neighboring base station (another base station), a Load Information message including the interference control information as an information element (IE). The X2 interface is for achieving inter-base station communication.
The base station that receives the Load Information message performs control for ICIC, for example, control for assigning a physical resource block (PRB) that is a radio resource (a so-called scheduling) or transmission power control, on the basis of the interference control information included in the Load Information message.
In the 3GPP standards, a method for setting a scheduling policy, a method of achieving ICIC, an algorithm, etc., are not defined, and these are specific to a vendor; however, it is expected that the interference control information is regularly notified in order to follow a change in communication environment.
Further, under a circumstance where interference easily occurs between base stations, an increase in effect of ICIC is required by frequently notifying the interference control information. On the other hand, under a circumstance where the interference hardly occurs between base stations, reduction in traffic between base stations is required by not frequently notifying the interference control information.
However, in the current 3GPP standards, there is a problem that the above-described requirements are not satisfied because it is expected that the base station notifies, in a fixed circle, the interference control information.